Women can and do play a vital role in driving the robust, shared growth needed to end extreme poverty and build resilient societies, but in many parts of the world, their potential, participation, and productive capacity are undervalued and untapped.
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Gaming isn’t just for entertainment anymore. It can make us smarter. It can make us safer. It can make us better citizens of the world.“Can” is the operative word here. For over a decade, video g... Show More +ames have been hailed as tools for strengthening human rights, increasing sustainability, and creating behavioral change for social impact. Yet the truth is that in 2015, gaming is better known for causing controversy and antagonism than for creating positive change.So with all of the urgent global challenges ahead of us, how can we finally reap the potential of the video game industry?Making it more gender inclusive is a pretty good place to start.To be clear, it’s not that women are more inclined to care more about solving global challenges than men are. But more inclusion means more ideas to mine, more successes to scale up, and, just as important, more failures to help us move the industry forward.In the $21 billion gaming industry, women represent less than a quarter of the workforce – and is it any wonder? Wherever you stand on Gamergate – the movement that has raised questions about the intersection between gaming culture and misogyny – the fact is that its associated vitriol and harassment have deterred perfectly capable women from considering a career in game development. Combine this with the popular image of gaming as the domain of male nerds, and women get the hint that they aren’t welcome even as casual contributors.The disparity that this creates isn’t just bad for gender equality. It’s bad for gaming itself. An industry doesn’t reach its full potential by stifling its already limited talent pool.Worse, the gap is bad for social innovation. From addressing climate change to alleviating poverty, video games should be the next frontier, as illustrated by efforts such as Games for Change. Actually getting there will take as many minds as possible.I don’t share the morbid belief that social-good gaming is over – but if we can’t overcome the gender divide in this industry, we’ll be losing an important opportunity.This is one of the reasons I decided to throw my hat in the ring and launch a social gaming project myself, GRID – Gaming Revolution for International Development, which aims to impact international development by allowing players to simulate the effects of new policies being considered and to understand the tradeoffs involved in the decision-making process. Our first game, Randomania, (made with support from the Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund of the World Bank) has been played by more than 300 policy makers. It may be nerdy, but it was also overdue, considering such an innovation hadn’t existed before in global development. Someone had to create it. And that someone happened to be a woman.However, the journey hasn’t been an easy one. As a Pakistani, Muslim woman at the helm of a tech venture, I have faced my fair share of skeptics, critics, and plain old sexists. From “The only game you should make is a cooking game” to “You are delusional if you think you can change the gaming landscape,” I have heard comments that would never be leveled at a man.Many would have been discouraged by such experiences, and understandably so. But I wouldn’t be swayed – in fact, it only inspired me to develop my next game, one that will help other women and minorities who face prejudice in their lives. Stereowiped is a social game that engages people in confronting and overcoming racial, gender, and ethnic stereotypes through a memory-tile play structure, and we’ve recently created a prototype.Fortunately, change is in the air. With initiatives such as No Ceilings, which has made a data-based case for gender equality, and Intel recently announcing its plan to double the number of women in gaming, the video game industry may very well be at, or near, a tipping point. Addressing gender inclusion in the gaming world will take time and effort, but with role models like Jane Mcgonigal – who created the game SuperBetter to help her and others recover from concussion – I hope to serve as one example of what is possible when we diversify the field.I hope to show that when gaming becomes more inclusive, our industry can do so much more to advance social progress. And we’ll see more women like the University of Miami’s Sevika Singh, who is creating a game that educates some of Miami’s most vulnerable residents on emergency preparedness and disaster relief.But improving inclusion will take a critical mass. That’s why I am calling on women of the millennial generation, no matter your major or background, to consider gaming as a viable endeavor for inspiring change. By claiming our space, women can help gaming reach its potential to improve lives, remove walls, and shape social innovation in the 21st century.Mariam Adil is Team Lead at social game maker GRID. She is also an economist (consultant) with the Africa Education Global Practice at the World Bank. Mariam launched GRID as a commitment through the Clinton Global Initiative University, and it has since been recognized in the UN PEACEapp competition. Show Less -

IDA Credit: US $50.0 million equivalentTerms: Maturity = 38 years, Grace = 6 yearsProject ID: P151844Project Description: The objective of the project is to improve access to temporary employmen... Show More +t and skills development opportunities for young men and women in Cote d’Ivoire. Show Less -

But Sweeta, now a mother of two, was able to convince her in-laws that she could run a business. “Initially my in-laws were telling me it was against their values that I go out and work. They would te... Show More +ll me how come a woman could work, and that, too, with men? How can a woman basically run a business?” recounts Sweeta. “However, despite all their resistance I was able to convince them and prove myself to them.”Today, Sweeta manages a small firm that manufactures jewelry made of gemstones and has a store in a women’s market in Herat City dedicated to women’s handmade products. All the sellers in this market are women as are the majority of its customers.Access to credit grows businessSweeta started her business four years ago with an initial capital of nearly US$1,000; her net capital today is about US$90,000. Her business started thriving after she procured polishing machines, as one of the biggest challenges she faced in this business was the lack of machinery for processing gemstones. Gemstones would be sent to India or Pakistan for polishing and then returned, after which the price of the stones would be much higher. Sweeta and other owners of handicraft businesses would have no other choice but to buy them.“I borrowed US$5,000 and repaid monthly. We bought two machines and only then our business thrived and my capital increased. You know, the more profit you make, the more your capital will grow,” Sweeta says. “The shortcomings were addressed and our income increased.”Sweeta’s access to credit was made possible through financial support from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund to the Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA) since 2003. In November 2013, IDA provided $50 million to the Access to Finance Project, which gives further support to MISFA to increase access to financial services of micro, small, and medium enterprises. Women employees help boost ordersSweeta sells a variety of handmade ornaments decorated with precious stones like turquoise, emerald, ruby, and agate in her store. “Initially I learned this craft from a foreign woman. Later she left Herat and I thought I should continue with the production of the handicraft and also help other women start this work,” she says.Although men are also involved in the handicraft business, Sweeta decided to employ only women: “I have two or three competitors in this market; however, my business prevails because it is handled entirely by women. I believe women’s work is more delicate and maybe that is why we receive more orders.”Sweeta’s staff of 12 women makes around 30 items daily including necklaces, rings, and bracelets. From her earnings, Sweeta is able to pay her staff and purchase raw materials, as well as show that she is capable of running a successful business.Introduction for video page:Microfinance is part of government’s Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS). ANDS sites microfinance as one of the tools that the government can use to reduce poverty, but specifically to create opportunities for small rural entrepreneurs, especially those engaged in agricultural activities.Today, the microfinance sector, with a quarter of a million clients across the country, is one of the biggest national development programs in Afghanistan. Microfinance activities have been possible with financial support from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) to the Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA) since 2003. Show Less -

During the interview she switches between Romanian and Hungarian, depending on how she feels. “I learned Romanian in Cluj. Hungarian and Romany in Sărățeni, a village in the heart of the Secuime regio... Show More +n, next to Sovata, where I spent my childhood in the last months of the Second World War.”Until the age of 14, there was a sort of yearly cycle in her life. She would spend the winters in the village, with her folks, and once the weather got warmer, her father - a gifted tinsmith - put them in a carriage and took them all with him to Cluj. They rented a room by night in villages around Cluj, where they would find work. If the offers were tempting enough, they sometimes dared to go even farther.This is how Gizi started her adventure as a nomad.“And then, when I reached the age of 14, my father married me off in Cluj. My husband was from the same village, in Secuime.”Her husband, also a gifted tinsmith, made good money and after six years of marriage they bought a house in a village near Sovata, paying 20,000 lei for it at that time.Gizi and her husband later met an older Hungarian gentleman in Huedin, who advised them to start an antiques business. Thus her husband decided to stop being a tinsmith. They collected old things from villages - such as ceramics, glass products, national costumes, embroideries, beads, silverware - and they took them to a gentleman in Huedin who “would buy and sell them, for good money, to other people from abroad.”“And it was good for us.”The two started learning, little by little, the difference between a valuable item and a regular one. They went around villages and traded for antiquities. When the gentleman in Huedin died, Gizi and her husband continued the business on their own - this time without a middleman.They went all around the country, by bus, from Bistrița to Arad.“We had a beautiful life. We used to sleep in peoples’ houses, while the children were at home, taken care of by my mother. I had very good kids,” she says.Gizi had four children: one daughter and three sons. One of the boys died when he was young, leaving behind a nine-year-old son, who was raised by Gizi. Her second son left the country and the third one, who is now sick, still lives with her. Her daughter left for Hungary almost seven years ago.Before, Gizi used to travel to Cluj with her husband, where they would sell their wares at flea markets or fairs.Little by little, the money starting coming in. After 19 years they managed to gather enough money to sell their house in Secuime and buy a new house in Cluj.“Me and my husband were hard workers.” Brave is an adjective that could also be added.She was loved by everyone everywhere she went and she would enjoy the friendship of those that saw her again.“If you are suspected of stealing or of being unfair, nobody in the village will respect you” – this is what the peasants told her everywhere she went.Three years later after they moved into the new house, disaster struck. Gizi was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She was 30 or 32 years old (she does not remember exactly). Her connections allowed her to go to the most renowned neurosurgeon in Cluj, who performed her surgery for free.“The doctor did not want to take any money from me. Maybe he felt pity for me because I was young.”Gizi’s surgery was a success, and Gizi recovered fully.“A miracle! God loved me.”In 1991, her husband died and Gizi gave up travelling the villages searching for antiquities. An ever tougher life and a lack of money made her sell her house and move into the one where she is living today. She lives her life day by day, without any social benefits and with minimum means.Sometimes she travels through villages looking for antiquities, but she does not find much anymore.“I am 70 years old right now, I cannot walk around as I did when I was young.”The appetite for these wares is different, but clients still buy from her to help her out.“In the past, people were kinder, they did not have so much hatred. Who allows me to sleep in their house, like in the past?”Four years ago, helped by some people she knew, Gizi submitted the proper paperwork and to begin collecting social welfare. In turn, she received 200 lei ($50) on a monthly basis.But this only lasted for two years.“They said that we have a house, some other people live a harder life. From time to time I buy three packages of cigarettes - the money is not even enough for bread. The gas, electricity and the remaining expenses amount to around 600-700 lei ($149-174) per month in the last months of winter.”She receives some monthly aid in the form of sugar, oil, rice and flour from City Hall.I invite her to go town, so she can introduce me to her old clients. We travel the route that she took in years past. On our way she tells me that in the recent years she has started going to church more often.“The Pentecostal church came to me because they saw I was living in difficult times. They help me, but not so much, because I don’t go to church on a regular basis.”She does not know anyone like her who lives in the same area.She has not been to Sovata in 20 years. Show Less -

Female labor force participation rates
in urban India between 1987 and 2011 are surprisingly low
and have stagnated since the late 1980s. Despite rising
growth, fer... Show More +tility decline, and rising wages and education
levels, married women's labor force participation
hovered around 18 percent. Analysis of five large
cross-sectional micro surveys shows that a combination of
supply and demand effects have contributed to this
stagnation. The main supply side factors are rising
household incomes and husband's education as well as
the falling selectivity of highly educated women. On the
demand side, the sectors that draw in female workers have
expanded least, so that changes in the sectoral structure of
employment alone would have actually led to declining
participation rates. Show Less -